The Jaguars had no immediate comment Wednesday night on a Philadelphia Daily News report that team owner Wayne Weaver is negotiating to sell the team to billionaire C. Dean Metropoulos, who could move the team to Los Angeles.
Team spokesman Ryan Robinson said Weaver was traveling on Wednesday and wouldn’t be available until today.
Metropoulos, 61, the former chairman and chief executive officer of New Jersey-based Pinnacle Foods, denied the newspaper’s report.
“I must tell you I haven’t had any such discussions,” Metropoulos was quoted in the Daily News. “I wouldn’t know how to give you any credibility to that because I don’t know anything about it.”
The Daily News reported that discussions between Weaver and Metropoulos are being brokered by Sal Galatioto of the New York sports investment firm Galatioto Sports Partners. The newspaper reported that Metropoulos previously has tried to buy two other NFL franchises — the Oakland Raiders and the Miami Dolphins — but was unsuccessful.
Metropoulos, according to the report, is interested in a 100 percent purchase of the Jaguars, though unnamed sources told the paper he would keep Weaver on for two years while he learns how to operate an NFL franchise. The sources told the newspaper that Metropoulos would bring in minority partners with him, and that the Jaguars would be a candidate to move to Los Angeles, which is seeking an NFL team.
Weaver has consistently denied any interest in selling in the team, though he acknowledged last year that has was looking for additional investors for the franchise.
The Jaguars, who joined the league in 1995, reached the second round of the AFC playoffs last season, but had three of their eight home games blacked out because they weren’t sold out. They’re often mentioned in media reports as a candidate to move to Los Angeles, but Weaver has consistently denied that the team is for sale.
